Find your Encouraging Word waiting in your mailbox each morning! (Make sure to check for your verification email and click on the link inside the email. If you don't verify your address, I can't send you your daily posting!)

Title

Free Encouraging Words e-book with email subscription!

Would you like more Encouraging Words at your fingertips? Just sign up for email delivery and you will be sent a link to my e-book in your confirmation email. You can then download the e-book which contains 38 of my most viewed posts.

If you have already subscribed to Encouraging Words and would like your copy, just drop me an email from my contact page, and I will send you the link!

Finding what you need:

You will find a complete list of all devotionals on the sitemap. You can find many devotionals listed by topic, or you can do a site search using the google search box!

Other Places I Blog

Folks have asked where they might find my writing. I am working on a compilation of my devotionals to be published in e-book format. My personal Ramblings blog is HERE. I am also a staff devotional writer for Rest Ministries.

My Forever Friend

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15 ,NIV)

I recently heard a saying that I found interesting. It was explaining that friends can be divided into three categories: Friends for a reason, friends for a season, and forever friends.

I started looking at the friends who have been in my life and realized that for me, they do indeed fall into one of those three categories. I think that somehow, I expected all to fall into the category of “forever friends” and have been disappointed when it hasn’t turned out that way. I’ve learned reluctantly that people “come and go” in our lives, knowing that I too have not been a “forever friend.”

I now see that God has brought certain people into my life for very specific reasons. Sometimes it has been for information I needed, or support for specific events. I’ve had “teachers” enter my life. I’ve always liked the saying “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” I’ve often mourned when those people left my life – not really understanding that the reason they were there had been accomplished.

I’ve known “friends for a season.” It’s always seemed to me that life is made up of different chapters. I’ve had the years I skated. The years I sang. The years I went to school. The years I’ve worked. Each different time frame had different people and different friends. I’m now better able to understand why those friends are no longer in my life. That particular season is over.

Forever friends – those few people who have been with me through it all – or the new ones I have made who I believe are going to be there. I cherish those people even more as I come to realize how few and far between they are for me. It’s easier to understand that someone I thought was a forever friend was really there for a specific reason or season of my life.

Yet, not even ‘forever friends’ can meet my needs all of the time. They will fail me. I will fail them.

Realizing all of this has also helped me to know that I have a ‘forever friend’ who will never leave me.

He’s not there just for a reason, or a season – but forever. He will never leave me or desert me. When all others have gone – no matter what the tie, He is there loving me, caring for me, and holding me close.

A forever friend.

Who could ask for more?

Lord, what more could we possibly ask? To be looked upon as your friend, when so often we look to the world and the things of this world is amazing. Help us to realize that this friendship is real - and one that will never end. Amen and Amen, Lord.

Comments are both welcomed and encouraged! I try to respond to each comment. (There is a place to mark in the comment section if you wish to be notified of replies.)

For my email friends - have you visited the Encouraging Words website? You can find devotionals listed by topics, visit the archives, and leave your thoughts on this post (or anything else you'd care to share!) Just click on the link. :)